Impaired Cell Fusion and Differentiation in Placentae from Patients with Intrauterine Growth Restriction Correlate with Reduced
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1 Impaired cell fusion and differentiation in placentae from patients with intrauterine growth restriction correlate with reduced levels of HERV envelope genes Matthias Ruebner*, Pamela L. Strissel, Reiner Strick University-Clinic Erlangen, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Laboratory for Molecular Medicine, Universitaetsstr. 21-23, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany 1 2 Abstract: One leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality is intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Several causes for IUGR have been proposed, e.g. cytotrophoblasts with dysfunctional cell fusion capabilities. Envelope genes of the human endogenous retrovirus (HERV)-W (Syncytin-1), -FRD (Syncytin-2) and –P(b) have fusogenic properties, whereas envelope genes of HERV-R, -V1 and -V2 have putative placental functions. All six HERV envelope genes and three known cellular receptors were analysed for expression in human control and IUGR placentae (n=38) and in cultured cytotrophoblasts from control and IUGR (n=8) placentae. All envelope genes demonstrated down regulation in IUGR compared to control placentae tissues, which were confirmed with cultured cytotrophoblasts. Examination of the Syncytin-1 and Syncytin-2 receptors ASCT-1/-2 and MFSD2 showed that MFSD2 was significantly lower expressed in IUGR than in control placentae and cytotrophoblasts. A reduction of Syncytin-1 protein expression was confirmed for IUGR placentae with immunoblotting and paraffin tissue sections. Embedded placental IUGR tissues showed an overall disorganized syncytiotrophoblast layer with fewer nuclei. Cytotrophoblasts from IUGR placentae demonstrated a lower cell fusion index and nuclei per syncytiotrophoblast in vitro. Fusogenic and non-fusogenic HERV envelope genes are dysregulated in IUGR placentae and may contribute to the etiology of growth restriction in utero. 2 3 Introduction: The human placenta represents a temporary organ where cell fusions or syncytia are found. During day 6-11 at the time of human blastocyst implantation villous cytotrophoblasts (CT) fuse to a multinuclear syncytiotrophoblast (SCT), which is then followed by fusion of villous CT into the established SCT for enlargement and maintenance [1]. It is known that low oxygen levels play a role during placentogenesis of the 1st trimester. However, after the removal of the extravillous trophoblast plugs, which block the spiral arteries, the SCT becomes in direct contact with the normal oxygenated blood from the mother [2, 3]. This specialized SCT functions as the primary feto-maternal interface or barrier essential for nutrient, gas and waste exchange [4]. Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) occurs with an incidence from 4 to 7% live births and remains one major perinatal problem, causing morbidity and mortality of mother and fetus [5, 6]. It is widely accepted that next to infections, maternal diseases and chromosomal abnormalities, a lack of nutrients and oxygen could lead to IUGR, as well as impaired fetal-placental angiogenesis [7, 8]. Previously, the measurement of chorionic villi surface areas demonstrated lower values for IUGR (~8.2 m2) compared to control placentae (~10 m2), resulting in a smaller interface between maternal and fetal tissues [9]. In addition, IUGR placentae showed an abnormal cellular development of trophoblasts, like lower amounts of CT and more apoptotic SCT [9-11]. Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) comprise approximately 8% of the human genome. HERV sequences have homologies to known retroviruses and originated from infections of germ cell lines followed by recombinations, insertions, mutations and deletions within the host DNA. Over 30,000 HERV elements have been grouped into more than 80 families according to sequence homologies [12, 13]. The envelope (env) gene of HERV-W (chromosome 7q21.2), called Syncytin-1 was the first to be recognized as essential for mediating trophoblast cell fusion events [14, 15]. Interestingly, using cell culture with various oxygen levels from 1-20% Syncytin-1 gene expression can be regulated [16-20]. 3 4 Furthermore, the Na+-dependent transporters for neutral amino acids ASCT-2 (SLC1A5) and ASCT-1 (SLC1A4) were also demonstrated as essential for cell fusions, probably by serving as receptors for Syncytin-1 [21]. Recently, two more HERV env genes capable of inducing cell fusions have been identified: HERV-FRD or Syncytin-2 on chromosome 6p24.1 and HERV-P(b) at 14q32.12, which we presently propose to name Syncytin-3 due to its cell fusion ability (Fig. 1A, supplemental Table 1A). In addition to placenta, syncytial cells were also found in human endometrial and breast carcinomas, with Syncytin-1 over expressed [22, 23]. Furthermore, a role for Syncytin- 1 mediating fusions was demonstrated for both human endometrial and breast carcinoma cells in vitro. Cancer cell fusions in vitro and in vivo have also been demonstrated to occur between different cell types, e.g. tumor cells and bone marrow-derived cells where these fusions have been implicated in metastasis [24]. Syncytin-2 was detected in villous CT and shown to induce cell fusions using an in vitro cell culture assay with human cancer cells similar to Syncytin-1 [25, 26]. A placenta-specific receptor for Syncytin-2 was identified as a major facilitator superfamily domain containing 2 (MFSD2) gene, which belongs to the large family of putative carbohydrate transporters. MFSD2 was specifically expressed in human placentae and mainly in SCT [27]. The more widely expressed Syncytin-3 was also found fusogenic in cell culture, even with other species than humans [28]. A receptor for Syncytin-3 has not been identified to date. In addition to the fusogenic Syncytin-1,-2 and -3, env genes other HERV env genes were found expressed in human placentae. For example, HERV-R or ERV3 (endogenous retroviral sequence 3) mRNAs are abundant in human placental chorion [29] but also expressed in normal and malignant tissues [30]. Although the evolutionary conservation of the envERV3 implies a favourable function, the loss of envERV3 in new world primates and gorillas and the detection of a stop-codon polymorphism in humans leading to a truncated env protein have been proposed against an essential role for survival and reproduction [31, 32]. 4 5 Recently, HERV-V1 and HERV-V2 along with their respective env genes envV1 and envV2 were located on chromosome 19q13.41 with only ~34 kb between both HERVs [33]. Both envV1 and envV2 were found highly identical with variations only at the C-terminus. Recent expression analysis of envV1 / V2 demonstrated exclusive expression in the placenta [28, 33]. The aim of this study was to determine if different expression levels of the three fusogenic Syncytin genes and the receptors ASCT-1, -2 and MFSD2, as well as envERV3, envV1 and envV2 contribute to the placental dysfunction in IUGR. In addition, isolated and cultivated CT from control and IUGR placentae were used to determine 1) if the same HERV env expression levels compared to primary placentas and 2) if dysregulated cell fusion occurred using normal cell culture conditions. Materials and methods: Patient and tissue collective The diagnosis of IUGR was based on elevated pulsatility index (PI) in the uterine arteries and/or early diastolic notches in both uterine arteries, elevated PI in umbilical arteries, elevated head/abdomen ratio, reduced amniotic fluid index and longitudinal measurements of reduced growth of the fetal abdominal circumference (< 5mm/week) and/or cross sectional records of the estimated fetal weight below the 10th-percentile [34]. With the approval of the Ethics Committee at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg a total of 46 human placentae were obtained from 23 controls and 23 patients solely with IUGR and no other disease, like cancer, diabetes, preeclampsia or HELLP-syndrome, after elective Caesarean section. The clinical data of the control cohort and patients with IUGR are presented in Table 1. A biopsy was obtained near the cord from every placentae. Placental tissues for RNA and protein analyses (19 tissues from control and 19 from IUGR placentae) were snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80°C until further use. In addition, from the 19 control and 19 IUGR placentas, 6 probes of 3 control and 3 IUGR placentae were formalin fixed for 5 6 immunohistochemistry analyses (see below). Besides the 19 control and 19 IUGR placentae, 4 additional control and 4 IUGR placentae were used for CT fractionations (see below), thus the total number of control placentae was 23 and of IUGR placentae was 23 (Table 1). RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis Total RNA was extracted from 50-100 mg of frozen placental tissues according to Strick et al. and Langbein et al. [23, 35]. For expression analysis, RNA was pre-treated with DNase I (Sigma-Aldrich, Germany) and cDNA was generated with the High Capacity cDNA Kit [Applied Biosystems (ABI), Germany] in a thermal cycler (ABI2720) for 2 hr at 37°C. Semi and absolute quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) Supplemental Table 1A shows specific primers of the env genes Syncytin-1, -2 and -3, envERV3, envV1 and envV2 used for cloning PCR fragments into TopoTA vectors (Invitrogen). The DNA of the cloned env genes with known copy numbers was used as external standard to generate a standard curve with the cycle threshold (CT) value against the log of amount of standard (ABI7300). qPCR with specific primers were then used to quantitate all env genes with SYBR-green technology (supplemental Table 1A). Amplification of 18s-rRNA (TF 5’ GCAATTATTCCCCATGAACG and BR 5’ GGCCTCACTAAACCATCCAA) and β-actin (TF 5’ TCACCATTGGCAATGAGCGG and 5’ BR: GATGTCCACGTCACACTT CAT) were used for normalization of the different samples. Importantly, a similar PCR efficiency (over 97 %) between all env genes was needed in order for comparison. Similar standard curves of all env genes were obtained for the SYBR-green based qPCR with the following slopes and calculations (supplemental Table 1B). The analysis of the Syncytin-1 and -2 receptors was performed using semiquantitative TaqMan-assays (Applied Biosystems) for ASCT-1 (exon 7-8), ASCT-2 (exon 1-2) and 6 7 MFSD2 (exon 13-14).